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TEEN PROSTITUTION by Joan J. Johnson

TEEN PROSTITUTION

by Joan J. Johnson

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1992
ISBN: 0-531-11099-0

In a depressingly well-documented digest of popular press coverage, a solid, nonsensationalized analysis. Quoting liberally from newspapers, magazines, and journalistic books, Johnson explains why teenagers land on the street, how they are recruited by pimps, how they handle their ``customers,'' and why it's so difficult for them to escape; she also debunks unhelpful stereotypes, notably the ``black pimp in flashy clothes,'' and is particularly effective in describing how fantasy dominates the interaction between prostitute and customer—which helps explain the rapid spread of AIDS, since ``AIDS isn't part of fantasies.'' Her only solutions are expensive—more social workers, better foster homes, a crackdown on child pornography (currently slighted in favor of the ``war on drugs'')—but without them, she warns, society will pay even more for an expanding criminal class, hardened and alienated. An excellent starting point for research papers. Notes; bibliography. Index not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)